Posted on 11/09/2010 8:05:31 AM PST by Gennie
(CBS) A mysterious missile launch off the southern California coast was caught by CBS affiliate KCBS's cameras Monday night, and officials are staying tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile.
CBS station KFMB put in calls to the Navy and Air Force Monday night about the striking launch off the coast of Los Angeles, which was easily visible from the coast, but the military has said nothing about the launch.
KFMB showed video of the apparent missile to former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Ellsworth, who is also a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, to get his thoughts.
Scroll down for KFMB video showing the launch.
Video here
"It's spectacular… It takes people's breath away," said Ellsworth, calling the projectile, "a big missile".
Magnificent images were captured by the KCBS news helicopter in L.A. around sunset Monday evening. The location of the missile was about 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island.
A Navy spokesperson told KFMB it wasn't their missile. He said there was no Navy activity reported in the area Monday evening.
On Friday night, Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, launched a Delta II rocket, carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB there had been no launches since then.
Ellsworth urged American to wait for definitive answers to come from the military.
When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia.
"It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," speculated Ellsworth.
Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.
Officially, at least, the projectile remains a mystery missile.
Since we know the military- all or part of it- knows what this is - the real question seems to be WHY are they lying to the country? WTH could be so bad/dramatic/terrifying they would risk an outright lie?
Center Fuel Tankers get so pissy when someone challenges their asinine cover story.
Rockets zig zag in flight? Or is it variable high altitude winds dispersing the contrail?
8:52 pacific time.. that would have been about 4 hours or more after the launch.
‘We’ve come up empty with any explanation,’ but ‘are not alarmed about this until we know more’
They are going to get us killed even beyond what they are doing in creating food shortages (using corn for fuel when the government knows there are food shortages worldwide) and the dollar collapse efforts. Obama’s running around Asia surrendering; telling everybody that America is in decline.
I despise these elitists for their disloyality and and disrespect of our people and country.
Hmmmm.. not sure on that one.
I better check the keg coolant activation system in the bunker.
Steady on DefCon3 ..
top of the hour news -military says it was not launched by foreign country.
"NORAD and USNORTHCOM are aware of the unexplained contrail reported off the coast of Southern California yesterday evening," the agency said in a statement. "At this time, we are unable to provide specific details, but we are working to determine the exact nature of this event. We can confirm that there is no indication of any threat to our nation and we will provide more information as it becomes available."
Re: Zero wants to stop the GOP house from being seated
Hum ... yep, I would not put it past Zero to turn quickly to martial law, if he can pull it off.
WBAP EBC test just ran ...
Crap. Dates like “11/9” or “11-11” may be significant to AQ or other b@$t@rds.
Just the wind shear at various altitudes.
Amended to add, that the Wallops Island lauch vehicle would have been a rocket, not a missile.
Captain Nemo, is that you??
The pentagon says no alarm as yet. They also cannot confirm that the US mainland was not in danger.
Sounds like a foreign power fired a ballistic missile very near California. Very troubling, whether by accident or on purpose.
I’d like to think they can track a missile launch fairly quickly, also like to think they know if a foreign, missile capable asset was in that location.
We all live a few minutes from the mother of all Pearl Harbors, but we don’t want to think about it.
Do weather RADARs actually sample (rotate) only once every ten minutes or is that just the reporting interval?Well, they do a 'scan' of the volume that encompasses the RADAR site, and, during non-storm periods they reduce the frequency of scans and that translates into reduced frequency of reporting the RADAR imagery they accrued ... a more comprehensive of the various 'Volume Coverage Patterns' can be found here:
Do they?
Yes, they should. Yes, perhaps they once did. But do they still?
I'm not so sanguine. It's been a long time since the end of history (1991 or so). If Clinton can lose his code chit, I'm afraid anything is possible. (Musta left it in my other pants. At Sharon's house.)
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Because if its China or some other Nation, the whole geo-Political map just got rearranged. Rather violently.
The plume looks more like we shot off a fish to see if it could fly.. got a great light show of it. the plumes tell a tale.
It wouldn’t have to be silent or more stealthy. You could have an old noisy sub with a missile mounted on it. As long as it is in international waters....YOU KNOW ODUMBI WON’T PROACTIVELY STOP IT.
and since we shut down that wullenwebber at Imperial Beach.....
A 737 with 24,000 lbf thrust vs. an Atlas III with 935,000 lbf thrust....
Yeah, it gets a little jittery comparatively.
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